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Women's Health

A TIMELINE OF

Emily Wang 12/07/24

1850-1700 BC

First known mentions of women’s health, 34 paragraphs in the Kahun Gynecological Papyrus from Ancient Egypt.

1960s

Women’s Rights Movement and Women’s Health Movement bring attention to inequalities in healthcare. The Women’s Health Movement’s goal was to demand better healthcare for all women and end sexism in healthcare.

1973

Abortion made legal in Supreme Court Case Roe v. Wade.

1983

Progress has been made for women’s health, the Public Health Service Task Force on Women’s Health Issues is established with Ruth L. Kirschstien as its chair. The organization pushes for the inclusion of women in clinical trials.

400-200 BC

In Ancient Greece, women were thought to be inferior to men, and practically every illness women could have was called ‘(female) hysteria’.

Early 1970s

Boston Women’s Health Book Collective published Our Bodies, Ourselves, an extremely influential book that helped to shape and inspire the women’s health movement.

1977

FDA bans women who could become pregnant from being included in clinical research due to thalidomide, a drug that caused many birth defects.

1983

Congress begins to advocate for more inclusion of women in clinical research, led by Senator Barbara Mikulski and Representatives Connie Morella, Olympia Snowe, and Patricia Schroeder.

1973

1984: The National Black Women’s Health Project, which is now known as the Black Women’s Health Imperative, starts to address the general and reproductive health of African American women.

1986

1986: NIH first introduces policy to include women in clinical trials.

1990

The Office of Research on Women’s Health is established, focusing on research for women’s health.

1993

FDA withdraws ban on inclusion of women in clinical research.

1993

Congress makes NIH inclusion policy law.

2000

The Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) is established and allows new researchers and faculty to connect with older, more experienced faculty.

2002

The Specialized Centers of Research (SCOR) on Sex Differences program is launched. This program uses scientific knowledge on how diseases affect men and women differently and translates it to develop new treatments.

2007

NIH Director Elias Zerhouni, M.D. establishes Working Group on Women in Biomedical Careers.

2008

Working Group on Women in Biomedical Careers publishes the monumental Research On Casual Factors and Interventions that Promote and Support Women in Biomedical Careers Initiative which helps to increase opportunities and decrease barriers for women in biomedical research.

2012

Congress passes law requiring FDA to report on sex, race, and ethnicity in clinical trials

2014

NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., and ORWH Director Janine A. Clayton M.D., FARVO, publish an article in Nature pushing for more consideration of sex as a biological variable in studies on animals and cells.

2012

ORWH collaborates with the National Institute on Aging to create Women of Color Research Network to provide information for women of color and those who support women’s health improvement on career development and grant processes, among many other things.

2016

NIH creates NIH Policy on Sex as a Biological Variable, led by ORWH, ensures that the influences of sex on health and disease are considered throughout research.

2017

NIH launches The U3 Administrative Supplement Program to research things that have been underrepresented, understudied, and underreported in the past.

2019

NIH releases first R01 for studying how sex and gender relate to health and disease.

2020-present

Research and programs continue to improve health issues women currently face. Since the women’s health movement to now, many health organizations and programs have all worked to better the lives of women, and everyone around them.

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